Morning has broken, and how time flies

This photo doesn't quite do the sunrise justice on Monday morning this week (I did take it with the camera on my phone). I don't mind getting up to walk Mishka when the weather's like this!

Sunday was a bit of a wasted day, I didn't get up till after 11am, and then I couldn't really make it off the sofa, thanks to the Rugby Final on Saturday night. That's all I'll say about the rugby, apart from I guess South Africa deserved it for the way they'd played throughout the tournament.
So that meant I still haven't put the glass into the windows and doors of the summerhouse, and now I can't do things outside in the evenings, as the nights are drawing in. Oh well, there's always this weekend....


I have bought my first pumpkin, I want to try the whole carving-the-lantern thing, I've got a couple of years to practise so I can impress Junior. I'll post photos up when I'm done (and I'll let you know how many pumpkins I get through before I have a lantern that's any good!)
It's been a fairly quiet week so far, last night's big job was to buy Mishka a new bed, as he's chewed up his old one. We picked what we thought was a big enough one in the shop, but once we got it home, it's only just big enough, and we spent the evening convincing him it's not a new chew toy.


The Sky Channel UKG2 has renamed itself to Dave (apparently because everyone knows a bloke called Dave) and it's started showing reruns of Whose Line Is It Anyway, which I'm addicted to. Channel 111 at 7pm for those who like good comedy.

The words for this weekend are going to be "Laminate" and "Flooring". The days are numbered for the loud carpets in the study and spare bedroom. I need to get round to booking my last 4 days of holiday for this year, I doubt - with my DIY track record that I'll get both rooms done in a weekend. Especially as we're off to York via Radcliffe next weekend.

Oh, I read something today that made me realise how time flies.... remember the Washington Sniper, shooting those people at petrol stations? That was 5 years ago...... FIVE years! The things you learn when you read the FBI website. Here's a photo of Chief Charles Moose to jog your memories. What a cool name.

Just makes me wonder how quickly the next two months will go?!

Friday afternoon at last

Ah, hometime! It's been a fairly uneventful week, apart from Russia beating England in the football. I went to the pub in Marlow with a couple of Russians who are over from our Tyumen office; they were able to keep their celebrations muted when the goals went in. Oh well, never mind, at least that total non-entity McLaren will be sacked and a proper manager installed. That reminds me, I must get my CV together...

I'm not fussed either way, I can always switch allegiance to Russia for the European Championships, and the Premier League players can't moan when they have next Summer off.

I've no plans yet about where to watch the Rugby Final tomorrow - there's supposed to be a POW Rangers "night out" in Marlow tomorrow, but considering that we're struggling to get a team of players out, I'm not sure if we can get a team of drinkers out either.

The weather has been lovely these past few days, it's been a pleasure to walk Mishka in the fresh, clear air in the mornings. I just need to learn how to set the timer on the boiler so I can have the radiators on when I get up rather than having to do it manually then letting Olga get all the benefit!

Mother and baby are fine, by the way!

Time to go home, and maybe put the DVD on of the 2003 Rugby Final....

Oooh La La, back safe and sound

After all the cuffuffle about where to watch the game, I ended up watching it on the French Channel TVMonde in our room! Complete with French commentary.... My 50p each way bet on England to win the Final that I put on back in August is going to pay up. The odds were 27-1 at the time, I wish I'd put a tenner on it now!

We're home safe and sound, if a little tired. The transfer was slow to the airport, and whilst the queues in the airport were small, the cost of food and drink were about the worst I've ever seen! A beer was over £4 for a half-litre, so we settled on a slice of pizza each and a shared coke. The flight home was full, and the crew nearly ran out of lap-belts for toddlers. Ola and I decided we won't be taking Junior on any flights once they're toddling around and screaming a lot. I know it's not their fault, but our kids will have to be happy with holidays in the UK, and maybe France, for a few years until they're old enough to fly without the hysterics. It seemed stressful for the kids and the parents, and everyone else on board.

Anyway, the long-term parking thing worked well, and we were at our desks at 9.20am, which is normal for us when we're coming from High Wycombe, never mind Gatwick!
We popped home at lunchtime to see Mishka, he seemed delighted to see us, and Lucy had clearly worked hard t make the house very clean and tidy for us, and had left us a pan of soup in the fridge. We're treating ourselves to a huge takeaway curry tonight - today is payday after all!

First things first though - it's hometime now for a nap!

A TV, my kingdom for a TV

The week has flown by, it's Friday already. Big news today is we've finished both the factor 25 and 15 suncream, without burning. So tomorrow we'll undo all the hard work and buy factor 2 cooking oil, I think. We got up super-early today (just after 7am) so we could go out kayaking while the sea was flat calm, it was lovely and peaceful. The photo attached here is from yesterday's practise run I did, the water was more choppy then.

More Turks have arrived now at the hotel, so the bar's busy and they ran out of beer again for a while. The big thing for tomorrow will be for the English who are here to find a tv showing the football then the rugby. I'm not convinced we'll succeed though. Hopefully it's on the BBC World Service and I can track it down on the radio.
Oh, the camels have arrived in the bar, something that should happen more often in English pubs at 6pm on a Friday!
Tomorrow I might go parasailing...let's see if more beer arrives tonight and how much of it I get through!
Oh, one of those pictures of a scan of an article about Nicole Richie. Why she's copying Olga, I don't know.

View from the hotel bar

It's day two, we've worked out how things work here, & it's great! There's food of some type or other available from 7am onwards and the bar is open from 10am. Bit of a crisis today, they seem to have run out of beer, but wine and spirits are still flowing. Olga is getting by on a good choice of soft drinks and teas. The weather is great, the sea is warm (once you're in!) and is very close to the hotel, as you can see! It's probably 70% Russian guests here, and all the staff speak better Russian than English, which means Olga's doing most of the talking! Our room is very close to the pool & bar, and is perfectly ok. We're just enjoying a siesta out of the sun at the moment, and thanks to technology and my PDA, I can send e-postcards like this! More later, toodlepip for now..